Eliminating Bias: Inclusive Leadership in the Legal Profession

With the death of George Floyd, many law firms and legal organizations are more open and receptive to bringing about change and are actively engaged in creating a more diverse and racially inclusive work environment. This session, presented by Cecilia B. Loving, Esq., Deputy Commissioner and Chief Diversity Officer of the Fire Department of NYC ("FDNY"); Wendy Star, Esq., Director of FDNY Diversity and Inclusion Policy Initiatives; Weijin (Gina) Leow, FDNY Diversity and Inclusion Manager; and Bobby Codjoe, Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Cardozo Law School, will go beyond a discussion of implicit bias to explore how leaders in the legal profession can be more proactive in supporting and sustaining a more inclusive work environment. Together, they will teach how senior and supervising attorneys can lean into discomfort to improve self-awareness and become more accountable to the necessary work of inclusion by creating firm-wide mentorship programs, professional development opportunities for attorneys, creating connections between different demographics of attorneys within the firm, cultivating the skills of diverse attorneys, and creating an inclusive culture of value and respect for every attorney in the workplace.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explore the critical need for inclusion within the legal profession, and what inclusion means

2. Provide practical strategies that legal leadership can implement to cultivate and support a more positive and inclusive work environment

3. Discuss practices that supervising attorneys can employ to give attorneys in the workplace the opportunities and professional development necessary to succeed

4. Develop strategies to support racial justice and healing in the profession, and learn how to engage in dialogue around these issues in the legal workplace

5. Recognize the existence of implicit bias within the legal profession and the need to overcome it, in order to improve the legal community internally and the quality of legal services provided to clientele